Yunfeng Financial Group, a Hong Kong-listed fintech firm associated with Alibaba founder Jack Ma, has made a major move into crypto by purchasing 10,000 ETH worth around $44 million. The acquisition, announced Tuesday, was funded entirely from internal cash reserves and marks a key step in Yunfeng’s Web3 expansion strategy.

The company said Ethereum was selected as a strategic reserve asset to back its ambitions in tokenized real-world assets (RWA), decentralized finance, and artificial intelligence integration. Yunfeng will classify its ETH holdings as investment assets on its balance sheet, underscoring its intention to diversify away from traditional fiat while strengthening its digital finance portfolio.

“The inclusion of ETH as a strategic reserve aligns with our expansion into frontier areas, including Web3 and RWA tokenization,” the company stated. Yunfeng also plans to explore Ethereum’s applications in insurance operations and decentralized financial services.

This bold move places Yunfeng among a growing list of institutions stockpiling Ether as part of their long-term strategy. The trend is accelerating as firms position themselves to benefit from Ethereum’s role as the backbone of tokenization and DeFi.

Meanwhile, The Ether Machine, another player betting big on Ethereum, announced it has raised $654 million in private financing, adding 150,000 ETH from prominent Ethereum advocate Jeffrey Berns, who also joined its board. The firm now holds more than 345,000 ETH and plans a Nasdaq listing later this year, potentially going public with nearly half a million ETH.

BitMine Immersion Technologies, led by Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, has also expanded its ETH treasury, now holding close to 1.87 million ETH valued at over $8 billion. Together, these moves highlight the escalating institutional race to secure Ethereum ahead of the next wave of Web3 adoption.